Operations Research

For decades, different approaches have been designed and implemented for optimizing maintenance management systems in manufacturing, but maintenance is still known as a cost driver rather than an enabler or driver of value creation in production management. The challenges for companies facing this change are many, ranging from doubts about the economic efficiency of maintenance to lack of data and flexibility in the maintenance organization to shortage of skilled workers and lack of prioritization of sustainability and resilience. The vision of the Maintenance-Free-Factory (M2F) is to harness the potential of digitalisation as a driver of sustainability and resilience, enabling a fundamental transformation of maintenance. At the heart of the M2F is value-added production without maintenance disruption. Maintenance activities are carried out during unproductive production times. Therefore, five elements – digital maintenance processes, data-based maintenance, decision support ...